Coping with our confusing and expensive childcare system May 29, 2019 Childcare is notoriously expensive in the UK. For UK parents with two children, around 46 per cent of household income goes towards childcare – the highest of all OECD countries – while prices have risen three per cent in the past year, according to the UK’s Childcare Survey 2019. “With the cost of full-time childcare [...]
British Land swings to a loss as retail troubles hit property values May 15, 2019 British Land became the latest in a string of property giants to reveal a fall in the value of its assets today, swinging to a loss amid turmoil in the retail sector. The FTSE 100 group, which owns developments such as Broadgate campus in the City of London, reported a £300m loss in the 12 months [...]
Vodafone dividend cut: What does it mean for investors? May 14, 2019 It’s been a rough morning for Vodafone, which has slashed its dividend by 40 per cent in a bid to ease rising debts and a hefty loss for the full-year. Investors were braced for bad news after reports of a dividend cut were widely circulated ahead of the company’s announcement today. But despite the initial [...]
Five things we learned from BT’s full-year results May 9, 2019 BT today published its eagerly-awaited results for the full-year, as investors kept a keen eye on the telecoms giant’s plan to turn around its ailing fortunes. After growing speculation over the company’s targets for full-fibre broadband and a potential dividend cut for beleaguered shareholders, here are five major takeaways from the results. Read more: BT boosts profits [...]
Domino’s suffers big dip in shares as it warns on international sales May 7, 2019 Shares in Domino’s Pizza fell seven per cent this morning after the firm warned it will no longer break even in its international division. Read more: Domino's Pizza hits back at reports it misled the City over franchisee row The figures Domino’s group sales rose 4.3 per cent to £324.4m. UK and Republic of Ireland [...]
Competition watchdog kills Sainsbury’s £7.3bn Asda merger: What went wrong? April 25, 2019 Almost a year to the day since Sainsbury’s first revealed that it was in merger talks with Asda, it has all come crashing down. In late April 2018 the two retail giants were losing market share to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, and the threat of Amazon moving into the grocery sector was very real. [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown and the Share Centre acquire £1.5bn of JP Morgan assets April 9, 2019 Hargreaves Lansdown and the Share Centre have agreed to buy £1.5bn in assets from JP Morgan Asset Management as the firm shifts its focus from direct-to-consumer to fund management. Read more: JP Morgan plans to cut hundreds of asset and wealth management jobs Hargreaves Lansdown has acquired up to 33,000 of JP Morgan’s retail managed fund [...]
Investor confidence soars to 10-month high despite Brexit uncertainty March 21, 2019 Investor confidence hit a ten-month high in March despite ongoing uncertainty related to Brexit. The Hargreaves Lansdown Investor Confidence Index reached 80 points this month, recovering from a record low of 52 points in December, indicating that the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union is no longer tainting investor sentiment to the same extent. Read [...]
Home-buying or retirement: What are Lifetime Isa savers planning to use their money for? March 20, 2019 When then chancellor George Osborne announced that the government would launch the Lifetime Isa in 2017, the industry was stunned. Designed for people under 40 to either save for retirement or for a home, few people saw this hybrid product coming. Alongside concerns that the Isa could distract from the new workplace pension scheme, a lot of [...]
Six tips to give your Isa a last-minute savings boost March 20, 2019 As the tax deadline creeps closer, by now you’re probably tired of the constant reminders to use or lose your annual £20,000 tax-free Isa limit. Perhaps you’ve been ignoring the prompts, putting everything off until now. You certainly wouldn’t be alone in doing so. In fact, looking at the past three tax years, wealth management [...]